Departure of the Bullet
End of an Era It was midnight with a half moon and stars that lit the ground like fireflies. Footsteps echoed as a young man walked casually past a few trees towards the horizon, having exited the gates of Konoha just a few minutes ago. The young man had luscious light blue shoulder-length hair and lavender eyes that reflected the moonlight for a second. Clad in an olive green hat and jacket along with black pants and sandals, white gloves, a white shirt and a black tie. Finishing his attire was a backpack he was carrying, which held some food and refreshments for his journey and a scabbard for his two katana. He looked back one last time at the dark village, most of the lights down as it slept. Within those few seconds he looked at the village, memories of his past came flooding in. From his godfather to his enlistment into Team Six and the chunin exams. He contemplated on the aftermath and his enrolment into the Anbu to killing his Hyuga subordinate and obtaining his eyes in secrecy. Now eighteen years old, the boy could remember it as if it was yesterday. He turned his head forward and continued onward with his walk. As he continued walking, he felt a familiar chakra signature close by. His eyes widened for a moment, then returned to normal. Juro had seen Gekihen leave the gates at the late hour as he took a quiet walk home from Ramen Ichiraku. His old friend and indirect rival for the past seven years, ever since that fateful encounter atop the Hokage Monument which united Team Six for the very first time. Then those dreadful Chunin Exams which had ended so prematurely, but still seen Juro's promotion to Chunin as well as Gekihen's and Kenji's. From then on, they'd had numerous missions under Udon, incredible successes which saw their reputation rise sky high. But the cracks were ever visible. Eventually they'd all gone their separate ways when Udon was offered a seat on Juro's father's Diplomatic Team. Gekihen had received his invitation to the ANBU Black Ops and joined it; gaining a fearsome reputation as one of Konoha's finest with his sterling combat records, Kenji had followed up to his clan's legendary reputation and become a ninja to be reckoned with, and Juro who had declined offers to join the ANBU; had become known as a maverick Chūnin and unorthodox combatant whose unpredictability had quelled many dangers to the peace which Konoha had enjoyed for so long in an epic history of engagements for someone so young, taking major strides to reaching his dreams in the process. But all this had driven wedges between Team Six eventhough they still considered each other to be friends. They met off and on for meals on the odd mission-less weekend, but the coldness always existed. And now it had boiled down to this, Gekihen mysteriously sneaking out somewhere at night, Juro was sure it wasn't an ANBU assignment. He quickened his pace and followed Gekihen in the shadows. Gekihen turned around as the chakra signature drew closer, letting his backpack fall to the grassy field he walked upon. Pushing some strands of his hair back, he waited for the chakra signature now determined to be that of Juro to catch up. "I hope you're not trying to get in my way..." the young man spoke, his tone as cold as ever. He was different from the cheerful boy he was years ago. His smile now replaced by a cold emotionless, devoid visage. Change was visible indeed. He closed his eyes, awaiting for what his comrad and former brother-figured had to say. Stop him? Juro thought to himself, perplexed. But then his brows deepened and he scowled to himself. He knew what Gekihen was trying to do now. "That depends on what you intend to do Gekihen," Juro replied, standing still as the moonlight shone on them. What could have persuaded him to go this far? Juro did not know the answer, but leaving never solved problems, no matter what the gravity of the situation was. As his friend did not reply, Juro probed further. "You're planning to pull off another Sasuke Uchiha, aren't you?" He asked as he watched his old friend's back. The boy turned to face the shinobi behind him, his lavender eyes still closed. "what I do is not of your concern... Now leave me alone whilst I'm still merciful..." the boy spoke, hir right hand touched the handle of one of his katana that rest in the scabbard in his back, rubbing it whilst awaiting what his old friend planned to do. "My reason for defection is one I keep to myself, but I think I should enlighten you..." the boy spoke, his cold stare widening into a smug grin. "You see, after the disappearance of Naruto and the death of my father, I realized that war was imminent. The shinobi nations no longer have a common enemy. Balance is therefore disrupted. I... I will fill that gap and be that enemy. Through power, peace will be achieved! And don't dare try to stop me..." the boy spoke, awaiting Juro's response. Juro's eyes widened in shock at the gravity of his words, and the depths of his intentions. Seeing Gekihen fiddle with his katana, Juro's right arm tensed momentarily, prepared reach behind to draw his signature weapon, the tantō, which had been the last opponent of many evil beings across the world had faced. But he did not. His friend was no evil being, he couldn't be and so Juro tried to apply reason. "All the more compelling as to why you should stay!" Juro snarled, "Without Naruto our village is that much weaker. Shouldn't it be your job to help us protect our village, you being one of its' best?!" Juro went even further now. "We keep the peace by negotiating, by talking. Not by taking things into our own hands, by using our power to end conflicts...that kind of power will only fan the flames of war, old friend." Juro pleaded. The young man chuckled. "How naïve of you, Juro.. Thinking that peace will be achieved with such a rediculous method." he retorted, releasing the katana he was currently rubbing with his right hand and tightly holding it infront of him taking a stance. "Darkness and light, Yin and Yang... Wrong and right... Where love exist, hatred dwells. Without enemies, the concept of friends is redundant and we can't change it. The Akatsuki was the enemy and the nations united to stand against it. With the Akatsuki gone, no one is left to keep the balance, and wars will restart all over again... I am prepared to carry that burden of being the enemy and I will bring balance and peace once more.. And if you try to stop me, Juro, I won't hesitate to kill you." the last words spoken were the epitomy of ominous and right there, after his chilling words, his eyes opened to further horrify the shinobi before him. They took a white form with veins visible in the temples beside the eyes. "Byakugan." and with that, he disappeared in near-instantaneous speed to decapitate him with his blade. Battle: Crimson vs White Eyes "You...how did you get the Byakugan?!" Juro shouted in shock, as the grim realisation set in. Hyuga clan members never gave their eyes, their most prized assets up easily. Their madness over the protection of their eyes was incredible. "You bastard!" Juro snarled as his Sharingan erupted into existence, its three tomoe spinning furiously to match the rage Juro began to feel, "you killed one of them for those, didn't you? You and these twisted, sickening ambitions of yours! You killed a Hyuga of the Leaf!" Gekihen disappeared in an attempt to perform his famous decapitation move, but Juro's Sharingan keeping track of the boy's incredible speed. "If you conspire against the Leaf, determined to work against it...as a shinobi of Konoha, I will do what must be done." Juro snarled through clenched teeth as his own tremendous speed carried him away from Gekihen's kenjutsu attack. Reappearing away from Gekihen, he straightened himself and glared at his old friend in determination. "You will not leave Konoha, old friend." Juro ominously stated. "Twisted!?" the boy yelled, getting angrier at his friends notions. Suddenly, a thick mist surrounded the area, leaving no room for the shinobi to see each other. However, Gekihen still had the eyes that could see through the mist along with his senses, as it was made of his own chakra. "I know your limits, Juro... All that time together wasn't in vain." the young man spoke to himself, pushing the sleeve of his left arm to the elbow and revealing his senbon launcher. As silent as an assassin, the young man pulled back the senbon dipped in a numbing poison, aiming for his old friend and releasing them. Four senbon shot through the thick mist, literally seeming impossible to detect for the sharingan, as they were not containing chakra along with their small size. However, the young man awaited Juro's next attack, knowing that he had something up his sleeves. "This trick, Gekihen, will never work!" Juro shouted as he took a massive breath. He blew a violent stream of air from his mouth as the Mist was blown away by the power of the wind. The projectiles launched by Gekihen were blown away the the vicious oncoming torrent of wind as the Mist was completely blown back before it could encircle and envelop Juro. Juro eyed his old friend quizzically. "You try so hard to counter my Sharingan, but you fail to focus on my strengths. It's not too late to turn back." Juro offered, one final time. Gekihen was unfazed, his grin became a cold glare once again as his old friend redirected his attack. "Juro.. When will you get it through your head? You're not at my level right now." he spoke, not even bothering to reply to his plea, he let go of his blade and formed a tiger handseal, "Fire Style: Great Dragon Flame!!" he yelled, spewing a massive fireball in the shape of a dragon's head towards Juro. The past, his team, his father, his godfather... It all meant nothing if he did not achieve his goal. His efforts would be in vain, and he would not let that happen. "I shouldn't stay here any longer otherwise, the village might deploy troops whilst Juro wastes my time." the boy spoke within, awaiting Juro's next action. "So be it then." Juro muttered. Forming the tiger hand sign, Juro simply copied Gekihen's attack using the Sharingan's abilities. With his own large chakra reserves, the deal was simple, and the intense flames of a dragon's head cancelled out Gekihen's attack easily. But Juro was not done, as six kunai whizzed through the smoke towards Gekihen, and four copies of Juro puffed into existence next to him, two of them forming hand signs while the other two stepped behind Juro and drew their kunai. Instantly the two clones spat out two fireballs while Juro himself took a deep breath after forming a few hand signs in the meantime. "Wind Release: Gale Force Explosive Breakthrough!" His mind screamed as a huge, powerful gust of wind empowered to two fire attacks, sending a hellish inferno towards Gekihen, as large chunks of earth were hurled upwards due to the extreme power of the incoming wind. The huge flames licked the earth ferociously, hurtling straight at Gekihen. Juro's other shadow clones prepared another suprise just in case. Gekihen's white eyes were kept fixated on the real Juro through out the course of the attack, using his reflexes and two fingers, middle and pointing fingers, in each hand, he took a stance similar to the Hyuga clan, deflecting every single kunai with little effort, courtesy of his Byakugan, as his eyes kept locked through the calamity the clashing attacks caused. "I told you... Right now, you're nowhere near my level..." the young boy whispered within, keeping the Hyuga fighting stance mantained as he imagines an eight trigrams circle around him. The flames seemingly "hit" Gekihen, but, in an instant, he appeared behind of the real Juro whilst he released the massive wind. A smirk evident in his visage, wasting no less than a second, he thrust the two fingers repeatedly at Juro, who was unfortunately inside the imaginary eight trigrams centre. "Two Palms! Four Palms! Eight Palms! Sixteen Palms! Thirty-Two Palms! Sixty Four Palms!!!" the boy yelled, launching repeated strikes at unimaginable speeds through the tenketsu of Juro's upper body in an attempt to close off his entire chakra. Additionally, his eight trigrams imaginary circle remained within his mind, ready to attack anyone who got close to him in any angle. "Maybe I'm not at your level because it's so damned predictable, Gekihen." Came Juro's voice from behind, as all sixty four palms bombarded the shadow clone. However before Gekihen could whirl around towards, even before the clone could poof away due to the extreme damage, both of the clones in front of the one Gekihen was punishing detonated themselves sending the boy backwards, before a lightning fast punch from another clone snagged him in the eye, propelling him in the opposite direction, sending him smashing back where he came from. The clone now poofed away, and Juro stood with his arms folded, not having made a single attacking move. The Byakugan could never differentiate clones from the original, since the distribution of chakra was even in each copy. The fire attacks enhanced by wind had been a chakra conserving blast, but in the confusion Juro was in no mood for risk taking. While Gekihen had thought he had appeared behind Juro, he never had. As the wide surface area of the attack had ensured, there would have only been one way for Gekihen to assault Juro; one which the shrewd Uchiha was very aware off, a semicircular movement counter, or clockwise around the flames to reach Juro. When Gekihen had been using his palms to deflect the six kunai, Juro had noticed that his Byakugan were focused on him. This was the actual reason behind the 'powerful' attack, bait. The moment Gekihen shifted, so did Juro and one of the clones; a split second dual body flicker as Gekihen appeared in front of the real Juro and behind the fake one. From then on, the counter attack was swift, Juro taking advantage of the Byakugan's inability to keep up with high speed movements like the Sharingan; had blown his clones up with their own tags and used the remaining one to punch Gekihen away. And apparently, Gekihen hadn't pulled out any tricks. There were no other chakra signatures that Juro's supremely tuned sensing detected. Juro now marched at the enraged Gekihen, who was getting up, as Juro flowed chakra to his legs, speed versus speed. "Come now Bullet, come." He whispered under his breath. Gekihen rose up, his senses searching for any other surprise Juro's as he stood up and took the Hyuga fighting stance once again, his veins bulged even more as he smirked. However, this was no ordinary smug grin. With one glimpse of this grin, the victim-Juro-would succumb to an illusion, allowing him to tap into his darkest fears. Additionally, Juro felt himself paralyzed, as if he was tied by invisible steel ropes. This was the time the monicker as the "Bullet" was put into work. Within an instant, he appeared infront of Juro once more, "Let's try This again! Two Palms! Four Palms! Eight Palms! Sixteen Palms! Thirty-Two Palms! Sixty-Four Palms!!!" the young man yelled, sending multiple finger thrusts in another attempt to block of the young Uchiha's tenketsu. "Unlike you, Juro.. I don't always play by the rules." The Last Stand But to his shock, Juro laughed as Gekihen's fingers harmlessly dug into his body. "That's because the rules you think you don't abide by are actually rules too. They're my rules!!" Juro yelled maniacally as a psychotic laugh escaped from his throat. Immediately Gekihen was bound by his own chains of paralysis, as his own fears took over him by surprise. But the Genjutsu never took effect on Gekihen as a sharp, debilitating pain in his groin snapped him out of it. Juro's heel had made contact with Gekihen's groin, but the Uchiha wasn't done. Rapidly his other foot used Gekihen's stomach as a pivot as he backflipped and landed two quick punches to the disorientated boy's face. Before Gekihen could regain his footing, a gust of wind knocked the former ANBU operative backwards, sending him spiralling off a nearby slope and into a river. Juro followed, his red eyes burning viciously as he thundered down the slope after his former teammate and friend. The way Juro had broken out of Gekihen's Genjutsu was extraordinarily simple. The key to breaking out of any Genjutsu was to reverse it before it could take effect, which is what Juro did. The moment he felt an irregularity of his chakra levels (which the Sharingan could detect) he had reversed Gekihen's technique instantly and attacked in the brief millisecond the boy was distracted. Juro being a Genjutsu master, had gained the upper hand when his own forte was used against him. Juro had to end this quickly and bring his friend home, fast. The boy smiled as his body spiralled towards the sloped, slowly shaking of the pain between his legs as he descended gracefully. However, the instant his feet touched the ground, chakra was already sent to his feet, creating a repulsion to propel him towards his Uchiha friend at a great pace. Additionally, Gekihen used his own tremendous speed to increase the speed of his propulsion to peak proportions, too fast for even the famed Sharingan to keep up. In the midst of his untraceable speeds, he aimed two fingers for Juro's forehead, intending to hit the tenketsu in his head to limit his chakra into his eyes. However, that was only the beginning of his attack. Once again, he spoke "Two Palms! Four Palms! Eight Palms! Sixteeen Palms! Thirty-Two Palms!!!" the young man yelled, lessening his attacks to conserve chakra. His attacks were at his utmost limits instead of speed, all fueled by pure unbridalled rage, rage concealed by a smug grin described as murderous. Like a gut reflex, Juro's thought was that Gekihen's fingers were going for his eyes. Angling his trajectory away from Gekihen's linear path after the chakra propulsion, Juro spotted a long log behind the incoming boy. The moment Gekihen's fingers began connecting to 'Juro' the visual illusion of the Body Replacement Technique ended and 'Juro' revealed itself to be a mere log. Juro slid down the slope and next to the river. "Give it up Gekihen, you're not going anywhere." Gekihen sighed, his efforts seemingly futile against his old friend. "I chose these eyes for a reason... To be compared with the likes of Juro... Ugh, I won't stand for it!" the boy snarled, his tone getting louder with each word as he faced Juro. "I'm putting an end to this madness... Come fight when you're worth it." the boy spoke, the anger visible in his face, the pure murderous intent in his eyes unleashed, paralyzing anyone to dare look him in the eyes. This information, however, wasn't divulged to Juro, as Gekihen glared at him. "Now I'll show you why the Byakugan is superior... Kaminome!" The boy yelled, instantaneously appearing behind Juro with his hands thrust forward. Without a wasted second, a huge amount of water rushed beneath Juro, knocking him off balance whilst encasing him. Gekihen had his senses searching to find no apparent trace of Juro's chakra anywhere else, as his eyes were always kept on him. Gekihen planned to keep up the inescapable prison to cause his friend to lose consciousness as a result of lack of oxygen, then release it and escape. If he drowned, well, he didn't care much about that, but according to his plan, Juro would likely be unconscious instead of dead. Caught offguard by the paralysis Genjutsu, the orb of water around Juro quickly brought him to his senses as he was trapped on the orb of water. Damn it! Juro thought as Gekihengrinned triumphantly behind the water orb, his hand pressed firmly to it. Gekihen's speed was on a different level, comparable to the speed of the jutsu his father had learned and frequently utilised. His overall resistance to damage and his physical abilities were incredible as well, in short his reputation was incredibly well earned. But Juro smiled nastily back at him. It was a matter of time now before the ANBU a division came to the outskirts and witnessed the clash...anytime now in fact. But Juro had no intention of drowning like a feeble creature. In the orb of water, Juro formed hand signs while bubbles escaped from his nose. A massive creature emerged in the river behind Juro, rising many metres into the air as it loomed ominously over the two boys before it came cascading upon Gekihen. As the massive, heavy water crashed down, Gekihen's grip on the orb of water was released and the orb disappeared, and Juro leaped backwards away from Gekihen. He sensed the area, to know where Gekihen would reappear next, and what to do when he did. He panted heavily now as his Sharingan scanned the area as the water attack began to stop cascading downwards. My chakra's running low, damn it. Juro thought to himself as he weighed his options in preparation. Gekihen was in shock at the behemoth that stood before him. As it went to splash, Gekihen propelled himself high upwards, narrowly avoiding the gargantuan amount of water and thus releasing Juro from the water. From his position, the village would be visible. Then it came to him... "Oh, crap..." the young man's white eyes widened. "This was his plan all along... He's just wasting my time until the village becomes aware and captures me.." Gekihen thought. If the behemoth launched by Juro didn't cause any awareness to the village, nothing would. His fists clenched as he descended, looking at his adversary. "My chakra is low, but just one last time for this..." the young man spoke to himself. "Hope you can swim!" he yelled as he appeared behind him with his special technique, fingers thrust rapidly at Juro's back. Gekihen did not even bother to count, launching his fingers repeatedly "Sixty Four Palms." he yelled, intending for his friends chakra pathway to be completely for a while. Without wasting a second, Gekihen turned himself away from the leaf, away from his life, away from Juro, away from everything. His natural speeds comparable to the body flicker as he whizzed away, leaving behind the village and the backpack with his lunch, burnt by Juro's attacks. The pain in his eyes and body was evident, his chakra extremely low, he continued running, disappearing with the wind. A Friendship in Flames Juro sensed him behind, and expected his attack, but Juro's speed simply wasn't enough this time. He dodged the first few finger jabs, but a few others hit him as he turned, thrusting the Uchiha backwards. But Gekihen was not staying to fight. The moment Juro fell into the water, Gekihen made his escape. "Don't you turn your back on me!" He roared as he pulled himself out of the water but his tenketsu points which dealt with chakra flow to the legs had been damaged. Juro formed several hand signs to fire a last ditch attack and ground Gekihen, but the boy was already far away with his speed technique. Juro scowled and closed his eyes in defeat. He had been on course to win the battle, but all that power had not prevented the real danger; Gekihen's betrayal. Now there was nothing much to do as six masked ANBU members emerged on the water around Juro, who simply floated in the water. "What happened here? We followed the trail..." An ANBU member asked as he gestured to the smouldering wreckage above the slope. Juro shook his head angrily as his Sharingan faded, "Your punctuality is commendable, sir." Juro hissed sarcastically before continuing, "Gekihen has defected. The Bullet is no more one of us. He has left the Hidden Leaf." Juro said, almost in a whisper. "I tried to stop him and alert the village so we could corner him, but he saw through the plan just a minute ago. One more thing, he stole a Byakugan from the Hyuga, possibly killed him as well." Juro finished. The ANBU exchanged glances before one responded. "He can't have gone far, we'll corner him!" Juro sneered at this suggestion. "He's using Space-Time ninjutsu, that's foolishly optimistic to say the least." Flowing chakra back to his legs, Juro propped himself onto the water and gazed over the horizon with steely determination. You won't keep running forever, old friend...I'll make sure. He thought. Whatever crime Gekihen intended to commit would be on Juro's conscience if Gekihen was allowed free reign. It would have to be Juro's job to return him to the village...dead or alive.